Monthly Archives: June 2015

The Benburb Joiners and Plumbers Society have been hailed as ‘saints’ after they raised £36 from a wet sponge game and donated £30 of it to Greece, strengthening their ancient ties with their sister city, Athens.

Greek treasurer and former Benburb Pipe Band member Pathos Havalavaho admitted the £30 was a ‘quare lift’ for his nation but questioned the retention of the £6 by the Benburb Joiners and Plumbers Society for administrative costs including expenses such as sponges and bucket.

“We are very grateful for the £30 but questions have to be asked about the remaining £6. Surely the sponges could have been donated and buckets aren’t exactly scare. This reeks of corruption but I still welcome the £30. It has given us a quare lift.”

Benburb, which was twinned with Athens in 1954 in what appears to be a spelling error when Beirut were firm favourites at the time to pair up with the Greek capital, have promised to hold future events to help ‘those less fortunate than us in Benburb’.

“On hundreds of occasions we’ve asked our neighbours in Benburb to raise money for the upkeep of our lovely flower beds in the village centre but they haven’t given us a bean. Yet, they’re flirting with the Greeks now. And another thing, Greece will never see that £6 as yer man Jordan who runs that charity in Benburb was steaming full earlier in Tomney’s. Crook.”

Meanwhile, Benburb Sunday passed off peacefully last weekend with only one man caught urinating.

A 46 year old aspiring secret agent from Seskinore has phoned the Ulster Herman to say he’s “almost definite” that the back door draw is a fix.

Sean McGrinny revealed always had his suspicions when the draw was on TV but then RTE and the GAA colluded to put it on the radio so no-one could see. The full phonecall transcript follows:

“Any old fool could be suspicious” mused Sean “when it was TV. The way they’d be pushing the balls around in a big glass barrel that was see through put doubts in everyone’s mind. But then the southerners thought they’d stifle the questions from the north by transferring the draw to the radio”.

“To my shame” confessed Sean, “I nearly forgot to be suspicious myself until last year when I happened to be in Dublin on the morning of the day when Tyrone drew Armagh. I can’t say why I was there being a spy and all but to cut a long story short I found myself in a pub in Donnybrook and there were some people there who looked wild like RTE people. I can’t recall exactly what they were saying cause I was quite pissed but I’ll never forget the big grin on their faces as they looked at me in my Tyrone shirt. It was obviously all a fix”.

“This year I took the liberty of asking people in and around Seskinore who they thought Tyrone would draw. At least 17 people predicted Meath. 18 if you count my mother in law. That was nearly half of the people I asked. Most of the others predicted Derry. Not a single person predicted Tipperary. What more proof do you want than that? The whole thing is a bloody fix”.

“Why is the draw on at 8.30 in the morning when most people are at work. RTE and the GAA thought they had the whole thing sewn up but they didn’t count on me. Being a spy I’m in control of my own agenda so I got up early on Monday morning and sat down to listen to the ‘draw’.”

“Their first cynical tactic to stop people listening was they delayed the news by talking for ages to someone in Athens about whether or not Greece will default on it’s debt. I mean is anyone in Ireland even remotely interested?”.

“When the draw started I turned the radio to full volume and couldn’t hear a single ball being shuffled during the entire affair. The only noise I could hear was someone making tea in the background. As Tyrone drew Meath someone in the RTE studios shouted “Jesus” in a cynical and shameless attempt to fool people into thinking it wasn’t fixed”.

Sean’s proud wife says that he comes from a long line of shrewd observers. His father was one of the first people in Tyrone to realise that men did not land on the moon. He was famous around Fintona and was once told to leave the pub at 2AM simply for insisting that there was something suspicious about JFK’s assassination. Sean’s grandfather was no cod either and had a theory that it was an emigrant from Tattysallagh who helped Shakespeare write 9 or 10 of his best plays.

An ill-conceived prank by the Loughmacrory PE department left a mother in tears after her son’s report suggested extreme measures to rectify his non-existent misbehaviour and under-performance.

Johnny Quinn, who achieved 10 A* grades and one E grade in his Year 8 report as well as Student of the Year and 100% attendance, arrived home on the day of his report to find his mother distraught after reading his English subject report.

Unbeknownst to his English teacher Mr McAleer, who was off on long-term leave after cutting off the branch he was sitting on during a spot of home gardening, a contingent of PE teachers conspired to fill in Tommy’s English Language report.

Grading him an ‘E’, despite having already published a poetry anthology at the age of 10, his subject report simply read:

“This bastard should be shot.”

Principal Kinnear admitted CCTV cameras, recently fitted after two History teachers were spotted canoodling in the Science corridor, would be examined to catch the culprit.

“Mrs Quinn is now pacified but the poor woman was traumatised after three hours of wondering where it all went wrong for Tommy in his favourite subject. Only for Tommy spotting a mistake in Mr McAleer’s signature we would have never have known it was a PE teacher.”

Tommy has since been awarded his 11th A* at Loughmacrory College of Excellence.

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Bonfires of lettuces littered the Derrytresk skyline this morning after local budding chef Jamsie McGarrell revealed the secret behind his succulent vegetables live on MasterChef on BBC2 last night.

The special episode, which was recorded live in London in front of an audience of 400 spectators, allowed contestants to bring in their own home-grown produce and make a signature dish.

McGarrell, who took first place with his ‘bacon and lettuce surprise‘, was heavily complimented on his wonderful vegetables, particularly his vibrant and ‘utterly memorable‘ lettuce, according to joint presenter Gregg Wallace.

When asked what the secret was to his outstanding quality of lettuce, McGarrell took a deep breath before adding:

“Pish. I pish on them at night.”

Filming was stopped and viewers were shown an old episode of Tom and Jerry as Wallace and co-presenter John Torode visited the men’s room due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’. A much paler Wallace emerged six minutes later to wrap up the live show.

Reaction in Derrytresk has been described as ‘confused’ as people were witnessed retching and vomiting in their gardens from last night until the early hours of the morning. Local wag and non-veg dieter Pete Campbell revealed he hasn’t laughed so much in a long time:

“McGarrell was making a mint selling his ‘Lovely Lettuce’ brand to nearly every house in the town land. People were mad for it and you’d even see men chewing on his lettuce whilst driving the motor or in Mass even. This is a turn-up for the books alright. I’m glad I just like the meat.”

McGarrell’s revelation explains away the three accusations of ‘indecent exposure’ in the last year which he managed to overturn by offering judge and jury free ‘lovely lettuces‘ for a year.

In a quirk of the calendar, June 21st 2015 sees Father’s Day fall on the day with the longest period of sunlight, leaving housewives across the county despondent at having to do absolutely everything around the house, as opposed to the usual 97%.

Dungannon woman and mother of 9 lively children, Lily Murphy, thought she’d witnessed it all until this morning:

“I ventured downstairs at 8 o’clock only to find Pat sitting at the kitchen table and our 5-year old shovelling Cheerios into his da’s mouth. Then, the 6-year old was using his hands to move Pat’s jaws up and down before tilting his head back to swallow. It was a savage display of laziness but today’s the day I can say nothing. He’s just sitting there and smirking and to make it worse, he’ll be like this til the sun goes down on the longest day.”

Across the county there are tales emerging of extreme cases of do-nothingness and lethargy over and beyond the norm. Clonoe 12pm Mass had to be delayed for half an hour after several families arrived late due to fathers refusing to drive the car, leaving non-driving mothers to shepherd their children up to four miles towards the church.

GAA matches have also been called off in many parts of the county with refereeing fathers refusing to blow their whistles or even running, leaving only 6 non-father officials able to take command of fixtures.

Meanwhile, police were called out to a house in Moortown this morning after a domestic argument spilled onto the main road. Neighbours reported shouting of ‘I’m mowing no fcukin lawn the day of all days’ as well as ‘every day’s a buckin father’s day to you. Thon lawn’s a jungle.‘

A driving instructor of 13 years has been ordered to chew on anti-flatulence tablets after a fifth pupil passed out during a complicated parallel parking manoeuvre.

Mike Carr, who drives a 2009 Vauxhall Corsa, was also accused of ordering learners slow down when passing female pedestrians and making inappropriate hand gestures at people with Donegal tops on them.

Jenny McClaren (19) maintains she passed out for at least five minutes following a loud eruption from the instructor as he polished off a strong-smelling egg and onion sandwich:

“It hit me like a brick to the face. The car even vibrated before the waft touched my nostrils. The next thing I knew I was slumped over the wheel, retching, holding up a snake-line of traffic in the town. Only he’s £10 an hour I’d be well away from Smelly Mike.”

Carr has also been admonished for leering at passers-by during crucial 3-point manoeuvres. 23 year old John Quinn, who passed after 11 failed attempts under Carr’s tutelage, admitted to being seriously embarrassed by his teacher’s antics:

“We’d be executing a 3-pointer and he’d stop me and wind down the window and shout ‘gwan ye blade ye’, wolf whistle and then hide and I’d get the 2-fingers from the poor victim. It was some price to pay for a tenner an hour.”

A third learner, who wishes to remain anonymous, told us of a road-side brawl instigated by Carr in 2014. Kirk McCabe, from 12 Tattyreagh Rd, explained:

“We were cruising at 27 mph towards the end of a successful lesson when he grabbed the steering wheel and veered the motor onto the pavement and scattered a group of lads in Donegal tops. He got out and threw up his eyes, blaming me. Those lads pulled me out and gave me a hiding. He just got back in and said ‘that was some handlin‘ and asked me for a tenner.”

After recent controversial comments by self-confessed chauvinist and Nobel laureate Tim Hunt who stated that “three things happen when they (women) are in the lab … You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you and when you criticise them, they cry“, businesses across the world have panicked regardless and started hiring Tyrone women who still retain their reputation for not crying at all, even when watching The Lion King.

Apple, Orange and Sony vans have been spotted several times over the weekend driving about roads in Omagh, Strabane and Dungannon looking for women in suits to drive their businesses to the next level.

Maire McGrane, a 27-year-old biochemistry graduate from Castlecaulfield, revealed she had received 16 offers from as far as China and Wicklow by worried directors ever since Tim Hunt’s remarks:

“I haven’t cried since 2005 and even that was only because I was kicked in the gut by a bull I was castrating. You only have to go out in Dungannon any Saturday night and you’ll see piles of lads crying over football results or being ugly whilst the wemen kick the tripe out of those who are not. I don’t know what this bollocks Hunt is talking about.”

Chinese technological giant Yamahoohoo have made inquiries into whether or not an airport can be built in Coalisland to ferry women across to run their burgeoning corporation.

McGrane warned Chinese men that they’ll not be falling in love as easy as Hunt maintains:

“If I like ye, it’s because you can stick one over the black spot from 50 metres out on your left foot or you can dung out a yard in under an hour. None of that oul love shite.”

Invest Ireland are looking into ways to keeping Irish women in Ireland, with their poetic spokesman adding ‘if this place is run by men, then it’s economic lights out for the motherland of old Erin.”

A stag party’s celebrations ended prematurely after a ‘slight miscalculation’ in the alcohol content of a new whiskey brewed in Pomeroy resulted in all ten party members receiving attention in Enniskillen hospital for ruptured throat and stomach linings after initial feelings of crazed merriment.

‘Sluggan Whiskeys’ owner James O’Kane, who opened his doors to visitors at the weekend, have promised to look into the mistake but also hinted that the men were ‘maybe not hard enough drinkers‘.

Groom-to-be Daithi O’Giles admitted he had grave reservations about the product before the free consumption at the end of the tour:

“I did think it was a bit worrying when they took us to the brewing room and all we saw were four large buckets of barley and a man throwing kettles of hot water over them and mashing it by jumping up and down on them with his wife. Then they threw it into a vat-type thing for three years and hoped for the best.”

Sluggan Whiskeys, whose slogan is ‘The Wacky Brain of Jamesy O’Kane’, have agreed to buy an ABV (alcohol by volume) gauge if their advertisement for a whiskey taster fails to gain any applications after the weekend’s mishap.

“We’ve always had a fair idea of how much alcohol there was in the brew by throwing it at the wall and seeing what damage it does to the paint. Unfortunately those methods seem outdated now and we apologise to the stag lads. But they have to admit they were in great form for the first ten minutes after consumption. Hopefully they’ll take up our offer of a bottle of our first turf-flavoured whiskey in 2018 for the discounted price of £70.”

Sluggan Whiskeys also agreed to review their charging policy after the stag party were each asked for their £20 tour fee as they exited the premises on stretchers.

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An East Tyrone school has been accused of applying Draconian tactics after it emerged that black puddings were the latest cause of hyperactivity in children according to a report someone read in a magazine in Canada.

Kiltytresk P.S. reportedly searched the bags of all 200 pupils in their large rural school for the foodstuff after their Board of Governors banned the traditional blood sausage from their premises. A local journalist confirmed that over 40 pupils were caught with black puddings hidden in the lining of their school bags with some pupils stuffing it down their socks in a ploy to evade detection.

Headmaster Leo Pope confirmed there will be no backing down from their new ruling:

“In recent weeks we’d eliminated chocolate, fizzy drinks and crisps from our school menu but the children are still running amok. It wasn’t until one of the staff mentioned they’d read an article in a magazine in Toronto about 30 years ago which criticised the endorphins released by the pork blood, encouraging young people to squeal and jump like pigs, that we realised we’d been sitting on a time bomb here.”

A recent survey in the Kiltytresk townland showed that, on average, over 89% of children under the age of 16 eat up to ten black puddings a day.

“We’ve promised to set up black pudding help lines and courses for people weaning off the substance, especially at that age. A lot of people in East Tyrone are dependent on black puddings, far more than they’d care to let on.”

PSNI officials have warned underground black pudding vendors outside the school that they’ll shoot on sight.

A gardening fanatic from Tattyreagh, who claims to possess a 30-year incident-free clean record in the grass-cutting trade, has received a suspended sentence at Omagh County Court for mowing straight over an 81-year old who was returning from her daily shopping expedition in the local confectionery store after buying the Irish News and three Paris Buns.

Carlito McCabe (41) admitted to trusting a faulty Sat-Nav he had recently purchased to speed up his mowing after receiving three big jobs recently for wealthy garden owners. On the third garden, McCabe’s device insisted he follow its advice and mow straight through a hedge onto the main road where he met the oblivious Mary McGarron:

“The Sat-Nav had been faultless til then. I’d mowed a 3-acred garden the previous day to perfection using the TomTom 2.6 Landscaper Extreme. It did cross my mind that mowing clean through a hedge was unconventional but I had no need to distrust the device.”

Mrs McGarron, who was hospitalised with a shave burns, revealed how the ordeal left her with a fear of mowers:

“I’ve walked that road for 80 years and never once has a lawn mower appeared from a hedge and ridden over the top of me. Any time I hear a cutting device now I duck under the nearest object.”

McCabe’s defence suggested that a hedge grown without permission was at fault, making it impossible for the Sat-Nav to suggest a u-turn before clattering into the pensioner, to which the judge replied ‘I dunno’.

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In a bold attempt to attract new members to the Irish speaking community in Tyrone, a recently-formed organisation ‘Gaelcappagh’ have won the rights to translate the new 50 Shades novel in the series by E L James into Irish before the English language version hits the shelves in Ireland.

50 Shades of Hidings (as gaeilge), which sees the female protagonist give her male companion a few hidings during romantic courtship, has already received 700 pre-release reservations in mid-Tyrone with many middle-aged women and men rushing to attend Irish Language classes for beginners this weekend.

Gaelcappagh president Lorcan O’Fiach admits it was a risky venture:

“We had to find someone willing to translate 50 Shades of Hidings into our national tongue without getting too hot under the collar and then going home to the husband or wife and upping the courtship stakes. We found a woman McAliskey from the loughshore but that had to be abandoned after her other half complained to us that he was getting no rest at all. Luckily PP Fr Hall’s 89-year maid finished the translation and she seems alright.”

Cappagh local and general handyman Paul Molloy admitted he was spending every last free second cramming before the novel comes out in August:

“I’ve re-read my Progress in Irish book about 40 times now since the announcement last week. I even know the Irish for ‘bate it into ye big girl’ so I hope that comes up in the book or maybe the translator will put it in now because I’ve said it. Maith thú I think.”

50 Shades of Hidings (as gaeilge) retails at £8.99 and will be available in a couple of book stores in August. The English version is due to be released in 2016.

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Slap Bladder, Fifa president, has come under fresh scrutiny after a gang of Pomeroy supporters blamed the Swiss man for inteferring in the Pomeroy/Derrytresk Intermediate championship game which saw the East Tyrone side emerge with a 4-point victory.

The Pomeroy Plunketts, who were deemed ‘unbackable’ by many bookmakers in the county, were left shellshocked after two second half goals saw The Hill progress to the quarter finals where they meet the winners of Edendork and Moortown whilst Pomeroy players safely book holidays in Ibiza and Downings.

Long time Pomeroy supporter James Kavanagh was left in no doubt as to why the result stood:

“Bladder’s hands are all over this. Why did the wind die down in the second half? Why was our player sent off for nothing? Why was the match played in Galbally? Why are there cows on the Derrytresk jerseys? These are important questions but you can be sure Bladder will pretend he knows nothing about it. A crook.”

External match-fixing investgator Kirk Forlan from Berlin admitted there may be some link between Derrytresk and the Fifa head-man.

“People have always been suspicious of why Derrytresk had the best roads in Ireland – so smooth you could iron your clothes on them. There’s money in that townland and it didn’t appear out of nowhere.”

Derrytresk PR spokesman John-Hugh McWallace denied any wrong-doings:

“People need to wise up. Yes, there is money in Derrytresk but that’s simply because we’re fairly tight. And yes, our roads are good but that is down to the beautiful aridity of this part of the world, often likened to the dry plains in southern Portugal. And finally yes, Bladder has stayed here a few times but blame the Fitzgeralds for that. He’s a third cousin, four times removed. But to say Slap had anything to do with this result is ridiculous. He wouldn’t even know where Galbally is.”

The anti-corruption agency NGO Transparency International warned Derrytresk that they’ll be sending an envoy of 32 delegates to watch the quarter-final.

Joe Grimm, who yesterday turned 111 making him the oldest Tyrone man since records began, maintains long life has nothing to do with food and fitness but is down to a succession of fine women as romantic companions.

Grimm, who was born in Pomeroy in 1904, reckons his best decade was the 1940s when local women were ‘coming out of themselves a wee bit more’ and ‘showing a bit more leg’.

“1947 was a great year for getting women. Gone were the long pleated dresses and square shoulders. In came the cocktail dresses and pencil skirts. It was a deadly time to be sitting on a wall in Pomeroy eating ice cream and gawking at the women heading out of Mass.”

Grimm advised today’s men to give up on lifting weights and running if they want to live a long and healthy life:

“That’s all a load of balls. I sees boys running down the road with water bottles and stuff. And these same boys would run a mile if a woman winked at them. Flirting and courting at least once a day is what keeps the ticker in good shape. I attempt to tackle a different woman every day and have done so since 1951. Maybe one in every forty tackles are successful but that’s good enough for me.”

Despite having experienced 22 restraining orders and 411 trips to Accident & Emergency for chatting up married women, Grimm revealed his favourite opening line that is sure to melt any woman’s heart in Tyrone: